


Play With Me

by untokki



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Arcades, Birthday Party, Chuck E. Cheese's, Comedy, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 23:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21557485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untokki/pseuds/untokki
Summary: Misery loves company, and Seto loves that he's not the only one suffering in that grease hole.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 62





	Play With Me

**Author's Note:**

> [@lostcryptids](http://lostcryptids.tumblr.com): “Yugioh confessions I want joey to work at chuck e cheese”  
> i only write garbage

Screaming children, grease covered linoleum, and rigged arcade games was the very last thing Seto wanted to experience on his day away from working. As a child, he may have found enjoyment in such things, but as a working adult with a company constantly weighing down on his shoulders, he would have preferred his day off spent in bed or with a good book over a party at Chuck E. Cheese. The uncomfortable plastic seat was finally beginning to wear on him, and no matter how he crossed his legs or moved his body, he found no comfortable position. On the other side of the spectrum, however, Mokuba seemed to be having the time of his life. He bounced between the game machines, the friends attending the party following him and playing along, as well. 

Seto would have rented out the entire restaurant for Mokuba’s birthday, but the young boy insisted on having it still open to the public. Because of his request, Seto was left to sit at that cramped table with his cheek resting on his hand, and his head swarming with a raging headache. The smell of grease and the cacophony of electronic sounds and loud, childish voices definitely didn’t do anything to aid him.

Mokuba could definitely look after himself and coral his peers if needed, but since Seto was supposed to be the “responsible guardian,” he was stuck. The grinding movements of the animatronics on stage was just enough to be irritating. The repetitive music was even worse. If he was to lose his sanity at any point in life, Seto wouldn’t be surprised if it happened at that moment.

“Welcome to Chuck E. Cheese! What can I… ah, fuck. Really?”

Seto looked up from where he was tapping his fingers against the tabletop and found surprised brown eyes staring at him, and a mop of blond hair. When he finally registered who exactly it was looking at him like a freak, Seto scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned back against the seat and crossed one thigh over the other. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll destroy you,” he said nonchalantly, like it was a greeting to an old friend. Well, that wasn’t exactly  _ wrong _ .

“You typically hang out at childrens’ arcades?” Joey questioned, putting a hand on his hip and looking down at the brunet man. The red, black and yellow uniform caught Seto’s eyes, as he had seen the rest of the employees in the restaurant wearing the exact same one.

“No, but I suppose you do?” he smiled up at him, but it did not reach his eyes. He then threw away the fake countenance and instead rolled his eyes. “It’s Mokuba’s birthday. He wanted a party with his friends here.”

“And who are you to say no, huh?” Joey nodded his head, slipping into the seat across from Seto. He let out a huff before resting his folded arms in front of him. “Geez, even in a place like this, you’d gotta wear crap like that.”

Seto looked down at himself, even though he knew his outfit consisted of a simple button-up and skinny jeans. He didn’t know what the problem was, and clearly his confusion was evident from his face with the way the blond man laughed at him. Instead of responding to Joey’s comment, he merely glared and asked his own question, “Shouldn’t you be working and not annoying your patrons?” 

“You want pizza?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t have a job to do.”

While Seto could say a lot in response to that, he chose to keep silent, instead watching as Joey surveyed the area. When both sets of eyes fell on Mokuba, playing Skee-ball with his friends, they looked back at one another. “He’s a good kid,” Joey remarked. “It’s weird a kid like that is your brother.”

“Personality isn’t genetic, you know,” Seto’s eyes left Joey after a moment to watch his brother again. He assumed Mokuba had just scored big, as he was pumping his fist in the air. He smiled softly at the sight. 

Silence rose between the men, and it wasn’t until Mokuba moved onto the next game that Seto realized Joey had been staring at  _ him _ , and not the birthday boy. Seto sat up a bit straighter and looked at the blond, who grinned. “You look so different lookin’ at him,” Joey observed, and when Seto registered the comment, he looked away.

“What, do you think I don’t experience positive emotions?” the brunet asked, his arms never having left their crossed position, but his fingers now grabbing at his shirt sleeves.

“I mean… If I had to pick between you and an android clone, then I think I might have a hard time,” Joey laughed nervously at the glare shooting bullets through him. “But, if Mokuba was there, then I’d definitely know which you was the real you, ya know? You’ve got this adoration in your eyes whenever you look at him.”

“He’s my brother,” he said simply, as if that was enough to close the conversation. 

“Right,” Joey nodded his head. He clearly caught Seto swallowing, as if the brunet had grown nervous in the last few minutes. Joey stood from the booth and jutted his thumb behind himself. “I’ll get you a water, or something. I think the party room is almost set up too, so the kids can have lunch.”

Seto nodded his head and cleared his throat, mumbling a single word of gratitude before Joey spun on his heel and headed back to the kitchen.

Seto felt as if an imaginary god had finally answered his unspoken prayers when the last kid was picked up, and just Mokuba and himself sat in the empty reserved room. The presents on the folding tables were piled high, which made Seto thankful for not having driven his personal car and instead opting for a chauffeur. He was about ready to leave and call said driver when the doors to the private room opened, and Joey came sauntering in. Mokuba jumped up from his seat at the table when he saw the blond, and he rushed over to greet him. “Happy birthday, kid!” Joey singsonged, ruffling his wild hair before placing a rather shoddy looking card on the table. Mokuba opened the folded piece of printer paper and read it out loud for Seto to hear. “Dear Mokuba,” the boy began, “Happy birthday. Hope you know turning twelve is actually a really big deal! I don’t have a present for you now, but you can always come back here, my treat. (Of course, you’ve gotta bring Sour Patch Kid over there with you, so we can make that frown turn upside down.) Have a good one! Joey.”

Seto immediately replaced his scowl with a neutral face before Joey could poke fun at him again, and stood up to walk over to his brother and the blond. 

“Look, I know you’d rather be anywhere else, but at least Mokuba had fun, right?” Joey asked him, cocking his head to the side and placing his hands on his hips.

Seto shrugged his shoulders and ruffled Mokuba’s head, causing the boy to reach up and fix his mop of black. “I’m glad he had fun,” Seto then turned his attention to Joey. “And I’m glad you get to suffer in this place with me.”

Joey shot him a smile, and it was enough for Seto to crack a small one of his own. “You know… I get off in about ten minutes. If you guys wanna hang around for a bit longer, I could treat ya to some more free tokens.”

“You’ll play with me?” Mokuba asked, always willing to play video games, and especially when it was against another person.

“On one condition,” Joey said, pointing one finger into the air. That same finger came down to point directly at Seto. “Kaiba’s gotta play with us.”

“Oh, please. I could easily crush you in any one of these games, Wheeler. No matter if you work here or not.”

“ _ And _ ,” Joey added, wiggling his finger in the taller man’s face. “You can’t treat it like a competition. You’ve gotta just have fun with your brother and your friend.”

While he wanted to comment on the use of the word “friend,” he instead agreed with another roll of his eyes.

No matter how set Joey was on making Seto play with them, he seemed to immediately forget the brunet once Mokuba began challenging him to the games. With Joey on one side of the machine and Mokuba on the other, the two used the plastic red and blue guns to shoot the pixelated enemies on the screen, each of them shouting towards the other in an attempt to lose concentration. Seto watched silently, leaning against the machine next to them, and waited for either to lose. When the screen flashed  _ PLAYER 2, WINNER _ , Seto felt pride grow in his chest for his little brother. “Losing to a twelve year old, Wheeler?” he teased, pushing himself away from the machine. The blond man huffed and crossed his arms.

“Try me, Kaiba,” he sneered.

“I thought this wasn’t a competition.”

“It can’t  _ not _ be a competition with you.”

“Why don’t you guys go against each other in shooting hoops?” Mokuba piped up, pointing towards the basketball game across the arcade floor. Joey and Seto shared a glance before agreeing to the contest. 

Joey stretched his arms out with over exaggerated movements, purposely extended an arm in front of Seto’s chest. The taller man swatted his arm away and grabbed one of the orange balls at the bottom of the game, and glanced back at the blond. “I’ll start.”

With a thumbs-up and a smile, Joey nodded his head. “Sure. Better if you lose faster.”

Seto would have come up with some kind of snarky comment if it wasn’t for the sounds and lights of the basketball game pulling his attention away from the shorter man. Almost instantly, he shot the balls towards the basket. He ground his teeth each time he missed one, and in the end, the red digits flashed a meek “24” at him. Wordlessly, he stepped back and crossed his arms. “Your turn,” he said, no emotion in his voice. If Joey said anything about his low score, Seto was ready to blame it on the machine, and not his lack of athletic prowess. He knew Joey was going to win this one, as the blond had always  _ looked _ more athletic than Seto was, with broader shoulders and thicker arms. Not that he was looking at those elements of his body. Or  _ any _ element of his body. Seto cleared his throat.

“Watch and learn, pretty boy.” Joey laughed, stepping in front of the machine and grabbing the basketball. The nickname caught Seto off guard, and he didn’t notice at first that the blond had begun playing. It wasn’t until the numbers read “24” once again that Seto even realized what had happened.

“Pretty boy?” Seto questioned, still not realizing that they had matched their scores, and that there was no winner.

“Uh, yeah. You’ve got looks but no build, I guess,” Joey rubbed the back of his neck, focusing on the red digits. “We tied.”

“I suppose we did,” Seto agreed, turning his attention to the counter before his cheeks matched the flushed ones on Joey. 

It wasn’t until Mokuba announced that he wanted to try too that the men stepped away from the machine, instead opting to watch and play with Mokuba rather than trying to compete against each other. Sometimes, they both silently admitted, it was better to not let a petty little rivalry get in the way, especially when a smile like Mokuba’s made the whole arcade glow.

**Author's Note:**

> began with the idea of joey working and ended with gay dads playing games as mokuba cheers them on, huh.
> 
> i've been strangely active on [tumblr](http://tropicpdf.tumblr.com) recently so don't hesitate to hmu there!


End file.
